Sunnyvale
by Lau12468
Summary: Arya is an 8 years old girl who lives in the modern world with her family. But when she is confronted once again with the stern attitude of her parents, the young girl decides to take the matter into her own hands and to leave her house. Little did she know that it would later be the place she would be yearning for the years to follow...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Arya, how many times do you need me to say it? Karate is not for girls! It is not proper for a young girl like yourself to risk being beaten bloody!" screamed her mother, red seemingly creeping from her copper hair into her cheeks, making her blue eyes glow with anger.

"And what if I like being hit and hitting others? What if I like being able to defend myself?" retorted Arya.

"If you didn't take argue as much with anything and everything, there would be no reason for you to have to defend yourself!"

"But-"

"No buts Arya! You will not go to Karate class, end of discussion! Now go to your room and reflect on your actions! And wash yourself, you have mud on your face!"

The young girl went upstairs, making as much noise as possible and slamming her bedroom door with all the force she could muster. She the threw herself on the top of her unmade bed and pounded in her pillow to try and evacuate the rage inside her. It was her half-brother Jon who had taught her that trick, having had a few situations of the sort with the woman of the house when he was her age. Jon had also taught her how to kick and give a punch without hurting herself, which had given her just enough of a taste for karate to know that it was what she wanted to do. She didn't want to do ballet! All of those hours in front of a mirror, stretching one way or another to try and make her body flexible enough to hold uncomfortable poses for a long period of time, it was torture! She would much rather fight with her brothers and learn her katas!

But alas, her mother was unmovable and her father, working most of the time, was agreeing to whatever Catelyn said. Ned Stark was not a coward, he could stand up before anyone if he wanted, but Catelyn was very strong headed and they had decided when their first child was born and that Ned had just started his new job that Catelyn would raise the children her way, and this was still the way they worked together.

And it worked, for the most part. The Stark family was far from being dysfunctional. All of the children had good grades, or at least managed not to fail any classes. They all had dinner together every night (except for Ned most of the time, but that wasn't his fault) and nobody had killed anyone yet. But there were definitely problems, starting with the extracurricular activities. The girls were told to do ballet and play the flute and the boys were asked to do karate and learn the guitar. It had worked for the first four children, but Arya would have none of it.

"If only I had been born a boy, I would've been able to do karate and not ballet" grumbled the young girl into her pillow after she had spent the excess of energy that she always had after speaking with her mother.

After a few minutes of moping, Arya got up and stood before her mirror. Even if Arya was eight-and-three-quarters years old, she looked as if the was seven, scrawny as she was. It was also one of the reasons that she wanted to learn karate, she needed to be able to defend herself and her younger brother Bran who always got picked on. The young girl regularly got into fights to defend her siblings, forgetting her own small size and lack of technique. After one last long look in the mirror, Arya scrubbed her cheek clean and got ready for dinner that would be served in a few minutes.

Dinner was surprisingly uneventful. Catelyn seemed to think that Arya would listen to reason and didn't speak of karate again, and Arya was lost in her own thoughts, thinking about ways to sneak into her brother's class without getting caught. But right after dinner, the man of the house got home from work and everything exploded.

Arya had always felt a little closer to her father and in seemed mutual. She went to hug him at the door and told him about her conversation with Catelyn.

"… and mom said that I couldn't go! But I need to learn to defend myself! Please! Tell her to let me go daddy!" cried Arya, hoping with all her heart that her father would see to reason.

But it was with a sad smile that her father answered "Arya, I agree with your mother. Karate is for boys. You shouldn't need to defend yourself and if you are in trouble, just ask Bran to help you."

"But it is Bran that I help daddy!" she said, her eyes starting to water with the realisation that Ned wasn't going to help her. "I help him when the bad guys come after him!"

"Now, now, Arya, no need to tell tales, I know you want to-"

"Tell tales?" She screamed, outraged. "You don't believe me? Daddy, I don't lie, I'm not lying, I swear!"

"Sweetie…" he whispered discouraged, at a loss of what to say to comfort his daughter. "I know you are not lying, but maybe you are exaggerating? Just a little?"

"No, I am not, but how would you know?" She was starting to cry, her anger transforming into a crushing blend of sorrow and disappointment. "You are never here, daddy." Her words were a whisper, so soft she wasn't sure if anyone else had heard it.

She went up the stairs, this time slowly, silently, closing her bedroom door behind her before the tears in her eyes had started rolling down her cheeks. She laid down on her bed, crying silently until she fell asleep.

Arya woke up disoriented. It was black in her room, so it must have been night time, but she was still dressed and on the top of the covers. After a few seconds, she remembered what had happened and felt sad again. But her tears had all come out before and she found that she had none left for the moment. Her eyes adjusting to the darkness, the young girl could now see the outline of the many girly objects that decorated her room. Most of her things were hand-me-downs from her older sister, be it clothes or her little alarm clock. And it was all purple or pink. Suddenly, all this pink and purple was all too much. She didn't want to stay in this family. People who love each other don't act like her mother does, do they? If her mother and father really loved her, they would let her take that class.

It was at this exact moment that Arya realised that she was leaving. She turned on her light, took her backpack and filled it with all of her favourite clothes (the blue and black ones). When she was ready, the young girl slowly opened her bedroom door and listened to be sure that everybody was sleeping. After a few seconds, she proceeded down the stairs. "Quiet as a mouse" someone had once told her. "Quick as a shadow". Finally, she reached the front door and opened it, letting the fresh night air brush her face for a few seconds before she went outside. She was free.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi everyone! I wanted to thank the readers that wrote to me, I really appreciate it and I hope you will like the rest! This chapter is really short because I originally wanted to put that in the first one. However, there was a glitch in my computer and this last part had erased from my original chapter so there it is! I hope you like it!

Chapter 2

Darkness can be viewed as two things: a thing to run from or a place to hide. Most eight-years-old tend to run from darkness, having a night light beside their bed and running to the closest light switch when they go to the basement. But Arya had always been comforted by it. She had turned off her night light a few years ago, realizing that she didn't need it anymore, and she often wondered what it would be to be able to hide in the dark, to be only a shadow in the night. And now, her wish was coming true.

She started walking down her street, towards the lake east of her house. There was not a lot of lamp posts and, in between them, she could see her hands, her feet and her legs disappear. She stopped at the darkest spots a few times, revelling in that feeling of being no one for just one second. _This is what I should be_ , she thought, _I should disappear. Mom and Dad will not notice, anyway. Only Jon will…_ She felt sad at the idea of not seeing Jon again, but not enough to go back.

She continued like this until she reached the lake. It was beautiful. It seemed like all the lights of the city were reflected into the unmoving water. _I have never seen the it like this!_ She thought, excited. If she had a camera, she would have taken a picture to take with her when she would not be here, but since she didn't, she took a moment to memorise every of this scenery. The clock of the clock tower upside-down in the water, the bank filled with algae of different sorts, the trees in between the houses…

She followed the lake, still taking its beauty in and starting to make a plan. She had heard from a friend at school that if you put your thumb up facing the road, someone might pick you up and take you wherever they are going. But it seemed unsafe and scary, going off with someone she didn't know, into the night, without letting anyone know where she was going…

The young girl reached the park at the end of the lake. It was the old park where they used to play before the new park closer to their home opened, and, by the looks of it, not so many kids came to this park anymore. The slide was all rusty and the monkey bars missed a few bars, but the swing was still there. Arya didn't mind, it was her favourite thing to do in the park. Most of the time there was someone to help her get on the seat however, since she was so small. And once she was up there, her father pushed her so hard that she almost reached the sky.

One time, her mother had taken her to this very park and she had tried to do the same. She put her daughter on the seat and pushed as hard as she could. But being much less strong than Ned, Arya only moved a little. Catelyn had gone in front of the swing to look at Arya. They had locked their eyes for a few seconds, then started laughing hysterically for no reason. _That was so fun…_ She remembered, _I didn't want to stop laughing, it felt so good!_ Arya tried to recreate the laugh by herself, thinking about funny things like kittens with clown hats and puppies running after their tail. She laughed, but it was not the same. The young girl came to the realisation that it was her mother who had made her laugh, not the swing. And in that moment, she wanted her mom. She wanted to go to her, and laugh with her, and play with her brothers, and even with Sansa if it was what it took. She was going home. And just has she was getting off the swing, she felt something against her mouth and nose. She struggled and tried to get it off, but everything was getting even darker and soon after, she was asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Everything hurt. Her head felt like something was crushing it, and the rest of her body felt like a giant bruise, worse than that time she and big Oliver had fought and he had won. She tried to open her eyes, but realised that something was covering them. A blindfold. She tried to sit up, but the world was spinning so she laid back down. At first, she couldn't hear anything, but after a moment, she heard a low voice murmuring words she couldn't understand next to her.

"Where am I?" Arya asked. Her voice was raspy, like she had screamed not long before, and her throat hurt, too.

She heard a few knocks, and then the sound of something sliding.

"Elle s'est réveillée Michel. Que dois-je faire?" said the voice. She couldn't understand the words, the sounds foreign to her ear, but she understood that the voice was worried.

"Êtes-vous un idiot? Faites-la dormir!" The second voice was deeper and angrier.

"Mais comment?"

"Le chloroforme imbécile! Le chloroforme!"

The sliding sound came again, but louder, followed by a loud bang. The second voice scared the young girl, and it seemed that the first voice was scared of him too if she followed her instinct.

"Kidnappe la fille Jean-Pierre, le chloroforme Jean-Pierre, tais-toi Jean-Pierre!" the voice was murmuring, sounding a little frustrated. But Arya didn't have the time to analyse it further because she felt another cloth on her face and she was asleep again.

Here is the translation for the conversation between Michel and Jean-Pierre.

"She woke up, Michel. What do I do?"

"Are you an idiot? Make her sleep!"

"But how?"

"The chloroform you imbecile! The chloroform!"

And then…

"Kidnap the girl Jean-Pierre, the chloroform Jean-Pierre, shut up Jean-Pierre!

Arya was beginning to be familiar with this feeling of pressure and nausea when waking up. She had been woken up and put to sleep so many times, she couldn't count them anymore. Her brain felt foggy and she couldn't remember where she was. As always, she tried opening her eyes first, expecting not to be able to, but, to her surprise, she could! Not that it made any difference, everything was black. She began to panic, thinking she way have gone blind, until her eyes began adjusting to her surroundings. She could see the faint outline of a door to her right, which meant she was indeed, not blind.

The thing she was laying on was different than last time too. It felt softer, like a mattress. And it was cooler. The air felt stale, but didn't smell that bad. She tried sitting up, but soon realised that she couldn't move. She tried to summon all of her strength into moving her arm, her hand, even her little finger, but nothing would move. She could only open and close her eyes. Arya was beginning to panic again when she heard clothes rustle behind her. She tried to see what it was but since she couldn't move it was pretty difficult. After a few tries, she whimpered a little, making the person behind her realise she was awake.

"La patiente semble être capable d'émettre des sons, mais ne peut pas bouger. Intéressant."

" **The patient seems to be able to emit sounds, but cannot move. Interesting.** "

This was a familiar voice. Where had she heard it before? Oh yes! The first time she had woken up. It was the mean voice. Oups. Arya stopped trying to make any sound, not wanting the man to pay attention to her.

She heard clothes moving until it seemed like the man was on her right. She felt a hand caressing her cheek, and then nothing for a few seconds. After a few heartbeats, she heard the man move away from her and the sound of a door opening as she was blinded by the light before it closed again.

Poor Arya was terrified. If she could have moved, she would be trembling like a leaf at this exact moment. Where was she?

I know my chapters are very short, but I prefer to update often than to keep it to myself, and this was a good place to end! So what do you think? Is it too dark? Thank you for reading!


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